Improvement in escapements for watches



V. ROUSSET. Esoapement for Watches.

10.217.326. l Patented1u|ys,1s79.

Mlzeases lkw/M102 jm @W wwm N,PETERS, PHOT0LETHOGRAPMER, WASHINGTON. D C.

'TINITED STAT-ns PATENT OEFICEn VIOTORIEN BOUSSET, OF MOItEZ-DU-JURA, FRANCE.

Speciiication forming part of Letters Patent No. 217,326, dated July S, 1879; application fllcd September 2S, 1878.

To ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VIo'romnN BoUssET, of Morez-du-Jura, in the Department of Jura, France, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Escapements for Watches and other Time-Pieces, of which the followingis a description, reference bein g had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specication.

My invention especially relates to dead-beat escapements organized to beat seconds, and is applicable not only to watches, but to other time-pieces employing a balance or hair spring and balance-wheel.

The invention consists in an arrangement of the balance-spring upon a separate arbor to that which carries the balance-wheel, said separate arbor being provided with a toothed wheel arranged to gear with a pinion fast on the balance-wheel, that is thus rapidly moved alternately in opposite directions by the coiling and uncoiling of the balance-spring, and so far as its courses of motion are concerned is analogous to the ordinary balance. This arrangement has the effect otl materially reducing the coiling and uncoiling movements of the balance-spring, so that the escapementwheel, which is commanded by an anchor or other pallet-carrying device, marks seconds instead of the tlfth or other fractional portions of seconds, as in ordinary watches, and I thus vobtain direct from the escape-wheel arbor a secondsimlication, and dispense with the gearing heretofore necessary in order to cause a dial-hand to beat seconds.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure .l represents a face view of a watch having my invention applied 5 Fig. 2, an interior face view, upon an enlarged scale, of the works of the watch having the invention applied in connection with. a lever-escapement and Fig. 3, a like view, in part, to Fig. 2, showing the invention applied in connection with an anchorescapement.

In said drawings, A is theescapement-wheel, which has thirty (30) teeth. B is the balancespring, and O is the anchor or lever carrying the pallets, which en gage with the escapementwheel, and connect the latter by a pin-disk, D, with the balance-spring'. Said anchor or pallet-carrying lever may be like that of the ordinary English eseapemen ts, and be constructed so that each movement ot' the anchor cenforms to a halt-tooth of the escapenientwvheel, or, iu other words, two impulses are given to the anchor by each movement ot' said wheel, whereby the latter between each of its progressive actions presents well-marked periods of rest. The arbor ot' this escapement-whcel O projects beyond the dial and carries the seeonds-hand, which advances each second by a jerk or beat one-siXtieth part ot' an entire revelution.

It will be understood, then, that without materially adding to the usual mechanism ot' watches or clocks, I obtain a veritable chronolneter action, marking dead seconds as perfectly as if such indication were 'tinfnished by a separate and more or less complicated mechanism.

The arbor b, which carries the balance-spring B and the pin-disk D of the escapement, also carries a toothed wheel, E, which has a vibratory motion in conformity with the action of said spring. This wheel E gears with a pinion, G, fast on the stan" c of the balance-wheel H, and so transmits an accelerated vibratory motion to the tly or balance wheel.

The invention is not restricted to any particular arrangement of the anchor or palletcarrying escapement-lever relatively to the escapement-wheel, nor to any particular construction of the pallets of the anchor, although it is preferred to incline them in a reverse direction to those ot'an ordinary anchor. Neither is the invention restricted to any particular arrangement of the bridges d, @,j', g, h, and 'i relatively to the main plate I for support of the mainspring-barrel J, and various wheels and pinions, including those by which mot-ion is communicated from the mainsprillg-barrel to theescapement-wheel, which wheels and pinions, as here represented, are indicated by the letters k, l, m, n, o, and l', a frcmontoir, if desired, being used above the bridges when the latter do not project-above the main plate.

In the arrangement represented in the drawings, the large intermediate wheel, m, is eccentric to the center ot' the watch, in order that the escapement-wheel and the seconds-hand attached to its spindle maybe in the center thereof; but said intermediate wheel may be in the center of the Watch, and in such case the seconds-hand may be arranged to move over a separate small dial in or on the lower part of the large dial and in front of the hour VI.

As hereinbefore observed, the several parts of' the escapement may be supported by a plate and bridges, both when the invention is applied to Watches and to clocks or chronom-v eters, and in the application of the invention to clocks or chronometers it is only necessary to make the escapement Wheel, the wheel attached to the balancc-spring,.the anchor, and the balance-Wheel of larger dimensions than in the case of a Watch. In clocks, however, the escapement may be put in place above the general movement and tted into a groove in the top of the plates of the latter in such manner that the pinion on the escapement-Wheel gears With the center-pinion,wl1ich in its turn gears in the manner common to various kinds of time-pieces. In other Words, the great intermediate Wheel may gear with a pinion having no large wheel on its arbor, which, passing through the dial, carries the seconds-hand.

The invention, however, is not restricted to any particular system of gearing pertaining to the general movement.

Having now explained the nature and object of my invention, and the mechanism by which this object is attained, I claim-l The combination, in a watch having a deadbeatescapement, of an escape-wheel with thirty teeth and an arbor projecting in front of the Watch-face to carry a seconds-hand, a palletlever connecting said escape-Wheel with a statt' carrying a balance-spring and a toothed Wheel7 and an arbor carrying a balance-wheel and a toothed wheel engaging with said toothed Wheel on the balancc-sprin g statt', said toothed wheels being so proportioned that the balancewheel arbor will oscillate much more rapidly than the balance-spring stati', which, through a suitable pin, causes --the escape-lever and' escape-wheel to beat seconds when the watch is properly regulated, substantially as setforth.

V. ROUSSET. [L s.] y Witnesses: A

EMrLE BoLLE, EUGNE GaAs. 

